March 30, 2016

A wind farm developed in California by the Campo Band of Mission Indians of the Kumeyaay
Nation. Photo from Campo Band

In the redwood country of northern California, where arboreal giants can live to be
2,000 years old and can reach heights of more than 375 feet, the Blue Lake Rancheria
Tribe has also grown something historic: a vision of climate sustainability and leadership.

In 2008, tribal leaders established a new energy vision, including zero net greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions and 100% renewable energy to power the tribe's community. Since
then, the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been
foundational in helping the tribe refine its climate action strategy and GHG reduction
goals.

"Our first experience with NREL was attending a tribal energy development workshop
in 2012, and we were so impressed," said Blue Lake Rancheria Energy Director Jana
Ganion. She's now attended several more, both as a participant and a presenter. "NREL
provides expert, practical support for tribes seeking to develop renewable energy,
from facility scale to community scale to utility scale."

The tribe has been aggressive in its pursuit of those goals, emerging as a national
leader in clean energy development and climate resilience. In December 2014, Blue
Lake Rancheria became one of 16 U.S. communities designated as a 2015–2016 White House Climate Action Champion. In making the announcement, the White House noted the tribe had reduced energy consumption
by 35% and was committed to reducing GHG emissions 40% by 2018, with a range of approaches
including on-site manufacturing of biodiesel to fuel public buses and aggressive energy
efficiency measures.

NREL provided Blue Lake Rancheria with technical assistance through the Energy Department's
Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs in 2014 to help ensure the safety of the
tribe's cutting-edge biomass system. "NREL can provide specific project review as
well as technology and financial feasibility information to design, fund, and implement
renewable energy systems," Ganion said. "And by actively working to include tribal
governments across all their research and development areas, NREL has demonstrated
a sustained commitment to Indian country."

In 2015 the tribe won a Strategic Technical Assistance Response Team (START) Program
award from the Office of Indian Energy, and NREL is providing the requested technical
assistance, including strategic communications planning to create a framework for
stakeholder education and engagement around energy efforts, and measurement and verification
support to establish a benchmark for energy efficiency and GHG inventories, which
will provide the Rancheria with a dashboard for gauging progress toward its climate
action goals.

A separate technical assistance project is taking a deep dive into building energy
efficiency and capital expense project recommendations for the Rancheria. And, working
with the Office of Indian Energy, NREL experts are reviewing cybersecurity for the
tribe's low-carbon, community-scale microgrid. "From the first meeting at NREL it
was clear that the NREL team is the superstar of the clean energy world. They excel
in technical communications, project feasibility studies, and trainings, and provide
realistic, objective guidance and recommendations—which are critical to any audience
looking to develop these types of projects," said Ganion.

And the Blue Lake Rancheria's experience with NREL isn't unique.

NREL Engaged from Alaska to the Southwest

From the subzero tundra in Alaska to the semi-arid landscape of the Southwest, Native
American tribes and Alaska Native villages are leading in clean energy–accomplishing
their economic development and environmental goals while providing models for other
governments to effectively transition to clean energy-based economies.

NREL's State, Local, and Tribal program provides access to the deep clean energy science
and engineering knowledge within the lab to Native American tribes and Alaska Native
villages to provide the technical and financial model knowledge. The potential for
tribal leadership in clean energy is significant: NREL geospatial research shows that
American Indian land comprises approximately 2% of the total U.S. land base, representing
an estimated 5% of the total U.S. renewable energy generation potential. "There is
a huge opportunity to partner with tribes to deliver clean technologies developed
in the lab to the real world, and also provide feedback from the real world into the
lab," said Elizabeth Doris, NREL program manager for State, Local, and Tribal programs.

For the past few years, the NREL Tribal team has met the clean energy needs of tribes
by tapping deep into laboratory technology expertise and assisting with developing
strategic energy plans that support their energy visions. Tribal activities at NREL
are supported by the Office of Indian Energy, U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI),
and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, aiding tribal communities by providing data, technology
neutral analytics, training, and technical assistance to improve energy efficiency
and tap renewable energy resources.

NREL provides tailored programs to large and small entities, including:

Technology and Market Analytics. NREL provides credible research and analytics to identify impactful opportunities for clean energy development on tribal land,
drawing on NREL's deep scientific and technical knowledge.

Direct Technical Assistance. NREL has been working with tribes to solve clean energy challenges since 1995, with
122 high-impact interactions occurring between 2012 and 2015. Currently, tribes have
cost-free access to NREL expertise through the Office of Indian Energy.

NREL is also the primary strategic partner for the Office of Indian Energy's START
Program, which is specifically designed to increase clean energy deployment on tribal
land and create replicable models and strategies for state, local, and tribal governments.

Since the START Program began in 2012, NREL has engaged its experts in solar and wind
energy, as well as building technologies and long-term energy planning, to provide
technical assistance to the 31 START projects.

Working with Agencies and Tribes for Long-Range Gains

A strong example of NREL's value is the ongoing work with the Energy Department and
DOI to address economic, energy, and water-use issues at the Navajo Generating Station
(NGS) on the Navajo Indian Reservation near Page, Arizona. "It is a microcosm of everything
you could imagine going on in one plant," said Scott Haase, an NREL senior engineer
and the lab's liaison to the DOI.

Haase, who leads the support for DOI and its Bureau of Reclamation, said the issue
is complex, with power sector, transmission, and environmental concerns in play as
well as water-energy nexus challenges. Beginning in 2011, NREL has worked to help
tribes and stakeholders move forward. "This is a body of work with a long lifespan,"
Haase said.

The 2,250-megawatt coal-fired power plant provides electricity to Arizona, California,
and Nevada, and is vital to the economies of the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe by using
tribal coal and providing many well-paying jobs. It also supplies low-cost power for
pumping water from the Colorado River into the vital Central Arizona Project, built
by the Bureau of Reclamation to supply water to customers in Arizona, and is an integral
part of legal settlements with Indian tribes over water rights.

"The Bureau of Reclamation has enlisted NREL to assist the agency in the development
of low-emitting energy alternatives as part of a long-term and incremental replacement
approach for the federal interest in the NGS," said Kevin Black, the Bureau's NGS
program manager for energy development.

The efforts continue. "How do you position the tribes to take advantage of this transition?"
Haase said.

NREL is also part of the efforts to help one of the START communities in Alaska leverage
both Energy Department and DOI assistance to form a renewable energy hybrid system
that could help islanded communities shed their dependence on diesel fuel. That initiative,
recently under way, could help blaze a path for tribal communities not only in North
America but across the world.

For now, NREL's experience is proving beneficial to tribal partners. Some energy projects
have gone forward; in some cases, NREL assistance has helped tribes to refine or rethink
their proposed projects in favor of more viable options.

Forest County Potawatomi Community (Wisconsin) Opts for Solar

The Forest County Potawatomi Community (FCP) received START assistance in 2012 because
of its interest in developing a small-scale combined heat and power (co-generation)
biomass facility. The tribe, which has timber resources on its reservation land in
northern Wisconsin, wanted to utilize resources in a smart, sustainable way. The tribe
was looking to provide both a district heating system and electricity for an administrative
campus.

"Our work showed the state of technology to do a co-generation facility at the small
scale they needed was not really commercially viable and proven yet," Heaps said.
NREL's analysis for that project showed that a heat-only system was more appropriate
for the tribe's needs, and a related market analysis of the tribe's energy resources
determined that solar photovoltaic (PV) energy technology was also a viable option—not
only on a smaller administrative site near Milwaukee, but also up near the Canadian
border.

The tribe noted that the START assistance allowed FCP to receive a basic evaluative
study from NREL on the emerging biomass gasification technology, as applied to forestry
resources on and near the reservation. The NREL study found that FCP could utilize
between 480 and 670 tons of forest biomass per year to eliminate or significantly
offset the use of propane in heating five buildings at the main FCP tribal government
campus in Stone Lake.

FCP applied for a DOE Tribal Energy Program grant and, as a result, was able to install
PV panels on its administrative building in Milwaukee as well as on some of the tribe's
northern residences. "This was a direct result of the resource study we performed
for the tribe under the START Program," Heaps said.

Campo Band of the Kumeyaay Nation (California) Tests Wind

The Campo Band of the Kumeyaay Nation requested technical assistance in reviewing
developer-generated plans for a large, 160-megawatt wind farm on its reservation in
San Diego County, California. With an existing wind farm already operating on the
reservation, Campo had an understanding of wind development and was exploring its
options for an ownership role in the proposed project.

The NREL START team reviewed the plans and validated data collected through anemometer
testing, and provided tribal leaders with background information on partnerships and
ownership options currently used in the marketplace.

"Having a greater understanding of the available ownership options and project financing
structures put the tribe in a better position to explore its options for expanding
its role in a project and to accrue benefits beyond income generated from a land lease,"
said Alex Dane, NREL project lead.

Goals and Partnerships for the Future

In addition to providing technical assistance, NREL and the Office of Indian Energy
work collaboratively to offer a wide range of resources and support aimed at helping
tribes meet their energy and climate challenges by building their internal capacity
to understand and navigate energy markets.

Along with competitively awarded grants for energy project development, there is a
comprehensive renewable energy development education and training curriculum specifically
for tribal leaders and professionals, as well as an Energy Resource Library, through
which tribes can access links to more than 100 publications, websites, and other helpful
resources on tribal energy project development and financing. Regional workshops,
webinars, Tribal Leader Forums, and college student internships are all part of a
holistic approach to empowering tribes to maximize the value of their energy resources.

Yet for NREL, it is about serving as an unbiased source of reliable technical expertise
with a focus on identifying and facilitating the optimal solution for each tribe's
unique challenges or needs. "NREL staff really take their role as technical advisors
seriously—they are very careful about the type of information they provide, but they're
also pragmatic in that they do a good job in understanding the situation each tribal
government is in, and tailor the information and areas of focus accordingly," Ganion
said. "It's been a great relationship."

Building on such relationships, NREL is expanding its work with tribes throughout
the Lower 48 and Alaska, fostering the transfer of knowledge from external resources
to internal staff. And through Energy Department programs and initiatives like START,
lab experts have a unique opportunity to partner with tribal communities in establishing
and pursuing bold clean energy visions as they confront a broad range of pressing
energy and climate challenges.